Contention One: Climate ChangeStatus quo US-Sino energy cooperation is ineffective – dialogue is not leading to action, and limitedbusiness deals are directionless – targeted US action is necessary to reverse this trend

Wallis,

journalist, 6/17/200

8

[Paul, "Economic Crisis? Maybe, but US and China just signed 71 contracts worth $13.6 billion,"http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/256226]

All the rhetoric between the US and China hasn’t meant much in terms of doing business

. Ford, Oracle, and others, have been merrily signing deals with China while Treasury Secretary Paulson carries the banner at the Strategic Economic Dialogue.It’s like a census of diplomatic terms.

What it actually means is business as usual, and any domestic issues in either country aren’t issues

. Reading the various reports is pretty impressive, because

anything verbal of substance is almostentirely theoretical, while the hard business is obviously thundering along regardless of global economic turmoil

.Bloomberg has been watching the parade:The shift in focus represents an effort by Paulson to create a venue for continuing talks once he and President George W. Bushleave office on Jan. 20.``Focusing on energy and the environment is part of the strategy to make this dialogue last beyond this administration,'' said Nicholas Lardy, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. ``Paulson is dialing back on thecurrency issue in part because he's had some success.''Chinese officials are also making 30 business deals with firms including Ford Motor Co. and Oracle Corp. American soybean processors anticipate a $3 billion commitment from China this year with agreements involving companies such as Cargill Inc. andArcher Daniels Midland Co., the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association said yesterday.Some of

the American views of this process are more than

a bit

critical. The Chinese

, however,

are all in favor

. Xinhua hascreated a series of articles, which if not a blow by blow are a showpiece of positive spin:During his visit to St. Louis earlier in the day, (Chinese Vice President) Wang met with local political and business leaders andspoke highly of growing economic and trade relations between the U.S. state of Missouri and China.He noted that the China-U.S. business relationship has expanded from coastal areas of the United States to the Midwest region,which includes Missouri, since China adopted its opening-up and reform policy 30 years ago.Wang said both the Chinese and U.S. governments need to attach great importance to their cooperation in the U.S. Midwestregion and create favorable conditions and an environment for cooperation between entrepreneurs of both countries.This is the unfolding of an agreement put in place by Presidents Hu and Bush in 2006. Talks under the Strategic EconomicDialogue framework are held twice per year.

The general negative feeling on the American side is that the talks are directionless.

One comment in the Bloomberg pieceis that

America “has no idea what it wants

.”The rest of the weather report is that currency is no longer an issue, everyone's happy, and energy is another area for bilateralcooperation.That means, perhaps, that the world’s two biggest oil slaves are hoping to take advantage of America’s total inability to cope withoil prices and China’s total inability to balance inflation and energy consumption.Stay tuned, there may be an attack of competence any decade now.The world’s two biggest polluters have also agreed on carbon credit trading.

The talk from the political zone about how muchChina should cut emissions is big, but there’s no indication of any actual progress to doing that